Found Peace
by daytrogen
Summary: Bea just wanted to fix androids,but when the machines started showing fear and love and hate, she knew things wouldn't be so simple anymore. When the detective turned lieutenant who turned her life around came asking for her help she can't turn him down, even when it goes against everything she believed in. She just hoped she could stay out of the crossfire.
1. Quiet

"Bea, your 3 o'clock is here."

Her shoulders immediately tensed, welding pen hovering midair. "The Browers?"

Lettie's LED cycles yellow and her hands clench slightly at her sides. Even if she wasn't programmed to respond, the answer was clear from that alone. "Yes, Bea." She let out a breath she hadn't meant to hold, rolling her shoulders to loosen them again. Bea didn't need yet another lecture about her poor posture, today least of all.

"Thank you, Lettie. I'll be out in just a moment."

The dark haired android nodded once and left, her hands folded behind her. Bea had to admit, she'd been dreading this appointment since she had to schedule it. Martin Brower was not someone she liked to see, and she had to see him much more often than should have been necessary when in the field of android repair.

Bea passed through the employees only door, after quickly checking to make sure she had no oil or dirt on her face. This particular customer was already prone to being condescending towards her. There was no reason to put it to the test when she already knew he was going to be difficult.

He stood at the front desk, arms crossed and eyes on Lettie, as though she should have let him right into the workshop instead of typing at her station. Her LED was a calm blue, but Bea could see the small signs of stress he'd caused in her. His wife sat nearby, wringing her hands together and Bea knew it wasn't going to be a great day for any of them.

"Mr Brower." Her hands went to her hips, showing that she wasn't going to let him intimidate her so easily. Lettie and Mrs Brower watched on, wary.

"Where is my android?" Straight to the point, then.

"Well," she started, glancing back behind her before solidifying her resolve, "there's no easy way to say it. He's gone. He ran away."

As predicted, the man in front of her didn't like that answer. He took a step closer to tower over her and even though she knew he wouldn't get violent, with her anyway, it took all of her willpower to not flinch. "What do you mean it's gone?!"

"I mean what I said. I finished repairs on his arm and was about to bring him out of low power mode to test reactions and run a diagnostic, when he jumped up and pushed me. Ran straight out my back door and down the road before I could get up." Her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Do you have any idea when he could have gotten this malfunction? It wasn't reported to me when you dropped him off."

Mr Brower scoffed. "You're supposed to be the android tech, you tell me. And what am I supposed to do now? Buy another?"

"If you want my opinion," she stressed the word, there was no finding out for sure with no android to check over, "I would say it happened in the fall. something bumped loose or something and it caused the malfunction. In theory, of course."

"Of course," he sneered at her.

"And as for what to do now, I would advise you to contact Cyberlife. No doubt that they wont want whatever this is getting out the the public, I'm sure they'll compensate you handsomely." She hoped that they wouldn't. The man wasn't fit to own a toaster, let alone an android. That wasn't her job, though. "But I'm afraid that's all I have for you. You wont be charged for the visit, for the inconvenience. Other than that, I believe our business is done."

Bea took a step back, moving towards Lettie to have her adjust the balance, when a hand reached out to grab hold of her arm. A split second of panic consumed her mind before quickly turning to anger as she twisted out of his grasp.

"That's it? Just call Cyberlife? That was seven thousand dollars worth of machinery you lost!"

"And I told you I wouldn't charge you for parts and labor, which I could. Your android had a preexisting malfunction that I wasn't told about upon drop off. I'm not liable for this, his fall is, and the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can get an updated model." She paused, looking him up and down, she hoped he could see the contempt in her expression. "One less prone to accidents."

The implication was there, and if his and his wives expressions were anything to go by, they got the message. He stared her down for a long moment, long enough for her to consider telling Lettie to call the cops, before he turned away. All the way to the door she could hear him grumbling about shitty workshops and how he was going to report her as he ushered his wife out in front of him.

She would have honestly liked to see him try.

She and her android watched him get into his automatic car and drive away and only then did the tension leave her body.

"Bea?" Lettie looked up at her with concern. "Should I close down the shop for the day?"

That girl was a lifesaver. "Could you please? Keep an eye out for that guy, though, he seems like the type to come back to yell at us some more." Her LED flickered yellow for a moment but quickly cycled back to blue with a smile on her lips.

"Of course, Bea. I will have the police on speed dial."

She snorted at the attempt at humor, making her way back into the workshop. The spare leg she'd been working on was still open, but the whole ordeal had sapped her energy. She stared it down for a moment, so consumed with debating with herself the pros and cons of continuing that she forgot one crucial fact.

"Why did you lie to them?"

The blonde android sat perfectly still on the workbench, watching her without so much as a blink. He didn't need to, of course. Breathing and blinking and moving abnormally were all human traits, meant to make them less of an Other. He was, though, and they both knew it. Bea sighed, rubbing her fingers into the spot between her brows and slumping down into her favorite chair.

"He pushed you down the stairs." She said it as if he should know why that would be unacceptable, but he only tilted his head in response. "And I'm willing to bet it wasn't the first time something like that happened. And I doubt if I had let you go back it would have been the last."

"It doesn't matter," he said, not breaking eye contact with her, "I'm a machine. I don't feel pain."

The words are rehearsed, but the feeling behind them was different. She had seen it before, and before she could stop herself her eyes drifted towards the door she'd come through. Lettie was the first android she'd seen to show something more, but she wasn't the last.

"You were scared." It was an accusation, and he seemed surprised by it. "I could see it when you told me what happened to you. One day that man was going to damage you beyond repair, you know that. Are you going to tell me that you want to go back?"

He doesn't answer, and that in itself is proof enough for her.

"I'll find you somewhere." She said, not just to him but to herself as well. It was a promise, and not one she would break . "Somewhere safe. With others."

"Where?" The mask he'd been wearing had shattered, his voice was desperate and she couldn't help but reach out to take his hand. It was cold, but when he tentatively wrapped his fingers back around hers it started to warm from her body heat. Bea focused on that feeling. He was alive. It was real.

"I have a couple of ideas."


	2. Not the Waking but the Rising

"Here try on these-"

With an ease she would never be able to replicate, the blonde android caught the clothes she tossed at him. Confused, but still accepting. Lettie watched, her smile hidden behind her hands. Rifling through her closet, Bea threw things out in a way that seemed to make very little sense, except for to her.

"Why would I need new clothing?"

"You can't go around in your uniform, you've been reported missing." She said, holding up a flannel shirt for examination.

He looked over at her, plaid shirt and jeans in hand, looking more out of place than she'd seen him yet. "I still don't understand. My model is well known, taking off my uniform will only create more problems than it will solve."

Falling back onto her behind, Bea looked up at him with exasperation. When she'd committed to helping him, she might not have considered how much work it would actually be. And he hadn't even left her apartment yet. It figured, that was just how things in her life worked. "Do you want to keep wearing that?"

He paused, looking down again at the bundle in his hands, but doesn't say anything against it again. Reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder, Lettie smiled at him. She knew better what he was going through, so Bea sat back and shuffled through her spare clothes again.

"We're going to make sure you're safe, that's all. You can trust us." After a moment of silence, she turned back around to see Lettie's hand, synthetic skin peeled back, still resting on his shoulder. She knew androids could communicate, see memories, send thoughts, with a touch. It looked like something she shouldn't watch, like she was intruding.

Before she could turn away, embarrassed, Lettie's eyes flew over to her, "He needs a name, Bea."

Now it was him who was embarrassed, turning his gaze away from them as they both stared at him.

"Did they not give you a name?" Even if a human completely disregarded the humanoid nature of an android, it was rare for them to not give a name. She could count the instances she'd seen on one hand, including this one. To reduce him down so far, Bea suddenly wasn't so surprised that he'd been abused.

Eyes still locked on the far wall, he shifted, clearly uncomfortable. "They called me android. Or by my model number."

"Assholes."

Lettie didn't say anything to that effect, but she did look just as upset. She'd been taken in by Bea before she'd woken up, so she was shielded from a lot of human cruelty. Some of Bea's clients still treated her like little more than an object, but she had never been outright abused.

Bea stood, her hands on her hips. That wasn't something she was going to stand by, wasn't something she could accept. This android had been through too much for her to leave him anywhere but completely safe, secure, happy. At least, to the best of her ability.

"That's something he's gotta do himself, Lettie." The two androids looked up to the human. "I'm not his owner, I can't give him a name. No one can give you a name but yourself."

The idea of it seemed to surprise him. That no one could order him around anymore, that he was under no ones thumb anymore. "I... I wouldn't know where to start." His voice wavered, slightly, and Bea smiled encouragingly at him.

"Just go through popular names. One will stick out to you, one that fits. Let us know, cause I refuse to call you Android." He didn't respond, his eyes moving between the two of them before moving away, his LED flickering yellow.

For a long while, things were silent. The quiet only disturbed by Bea separating more clothes for their guest, all three of them too consumed by their own thoughts.

She couldn't speak for the other two, but Bea was focused on what to do. Androids acting out wasn't something that was very common, at least in the news. But it seemed like it was starting to happen more and more, and she couldn't decide if it was a good thing or not.

On one hand, it was almost the birth of a new species. People made of metal and plastic rather than blood and bones, able to think for themselves and feel as strongly as anyone. On the other, humans were always resistant to change. How cruel would it be to have androids who were able to feel the distress of their oppression? How long would they sit idly by?

Bea didn't know what would happen in the future, but she wanted to be on the right side. She wanted to support Lettie, and the others who had woken up. They needed somewhere safe.

Her hands stilled in the bundle of fabric. She had more to give than this. Clothes and a safe place were one thing, but androids couldn't buy parts for themselves. They couldn't get blue blood or repairs on their own, not from just anyone. Her head tipped back and she groaned out loud. It was pretty clear what she had to do and she would do it, even if she knew it would be very unpleasant.

And Lettie was going to hate it.

Adjusting her hat further over her ears, Bea made sure no police drones were hovering around her. Though, the problem at The Pit wasn't so much things getting in as things getting out, so didn't didn't expect much resistance. She patted her coat pocket, making sure her phone was still secure inside as was Letties part of the deal.

She was right, her android had absolutely hated the idea.

There was no way that Bea would be able to help androids on their own, not with the price of parts and the fact that they wouldn't be able to pay. Only if she got creative. It wasn't as if going to what amounted to an android graveyard was something she wanted to do, but it was the only thing that made sense. Long term, who knew what she would be able to do.

"Only take from the ones that aren't salvageable," Lettie had said, her voice unusually stern, "only the ones completely shut down."

Not that she needed to be told that kind of thing. She was doing this to help them, not to trade lives.

Which was how she ended up there, slipping through a wire fence and pulling a bandanna over her nose and mouth.

Thirium on it's own wasn't a strong smell, but that place reeked of it. Of burnt plastic and oil and blue blood splattered over the ground. Bea tried not to think about how it had to be fresh to have not evaporated yet.

She took what she could and what wasn't needed. Optical units, functional biocomponents, even a spare arm that made her think of the android in her shop, still deciding on a name for himself. The whole process took only about a half an hour, but by that point she felt like she was pushing her luck. Tucking an audio processor into the last pocket in her bag, she turned to slide back through the fence that she came from, only to be stopped by a hand on her wrist.

Panic was the first emotion to hit, and she spun, throwing her arm in an attempt to throw whoever grabbed her off. The grip was surprisingly strong, more firm than a human could be, and when she locked eyes on the android that grabbed her, she gasped.

A KL900 unit, she recognized immediately. Specialized in social care, a psychologist model, but the back of her skull frame seemed like it'd been ripped off of her. Bea could see the wires and cables that made up an android hanging out and down her back, and made her mildly sick to her stomach.

"You're the one." She says, her voice carrying that mechanical tone that androids got when they were damaged. "The one who will lead us to safety." The words made no sense, but still caused a shiver to run down her spine.

Bea pulled again, fear pushing against her throat as she spoke. "Let me go!"

"There is a place we can be safe, that's what you want. That is what you can do."

The hand let go of her, but something about her words made Bea pause. It wasn't anything she'd heard from an android before, but something about them strike a chord. "What are you saying? Someplace androids can be safe?"

Her lips pulled back into an imitation of a smile, her hands folding in front of her. Somehow, Bea felt like she had played right into her hands. "We can be safe in Jericho. We go to Jericho."

The words didn't make a whole lot of sense, but the KL900 was functioning, if not damaged. Bea couldn't just leave her in the landfill where she would slowly decay. If anything, she seemed to have an idea of somewhere of where they could be others like her.

And that was how she entered her apartment above the shop that night, with a bag full of parts and an injured android in tow. Lettie, as Bea had predicted, was even less pleased about that turn of events. Not that she would say anything in front of the new face, and not as if she would try to turn her away.

"Lettie," she introduced herself, her lips in a thin line but her hand still outstretched in greeting.

"I am Lucy." Their new refugee nodded her head and took her hand, black eyes flickering between the two androids already occupying the apartment.

"I've decided on a name as well," the blonde said suddenly, catching Bea's attention and looking more comfortable than Bea had seen him yet. Some kind of ease in his form, she guessed he was growing into being alive. Or, at least, it was becoming easier.

Bea smiled wide at him, oddly proud. With all her efforts to guide him, she was just glad that it was working so far. "Well, go ahead. What do we call you?"

He stood a little taller, posture straight with pride instead of programming.

"I'd like to be called Simon."


End file.
